The long distance commute became necessary when Kimberly, 39, left one job in Houston last spring for another at Virginia Tech. She was eager to embrace a new challenge — helping first-generation students finish high school and attend college as director of the Talent Search and Upward Bound programs — but she didn’t want to quit her doctoral studies.

Virginia Tech offered Kimberly a PhD program. But Kimberly wanted to finish what she began at OLLU. So she agreed to take the job if Virginia Tech would allow her to pursue her PhD on weekends. The school agreed and wrote the promise into her contract.

“That was a deal breaker for me,” Kimberly says. “I’ve been in the PhD program for two years. I didn’t want to leave it. I am part of the first cohort. I just love it.”

The commute is not easy. Kimberly leaves her house in Christiansburg, Va. at 4:30 a.m. on Friday and drives 35 miles to the Roanoke Regional Airport to catch a 6:30 a.m. flight. She arrives in Houston around noon. Her first order of business?

“I look for Mexican food,” she says. “I can’t find any good Mexican food up here so that’s typically what I do when I get off the plane.”

She completes Virginia Tech business in Houston on Friday afternoon. On Saturday, she attends class from 8 a.m. until noon, and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. She attends church on Sunday, rests, then rises at 4 a.m. Monday to catch a flight back to Virginia. Kimberly is on track to earn her PhD in August 2014.

Kimberly is not the first out-of-state commuter to pursue a PhD from OLLU in Leadership Studies. Janet Dellaria commutes from Trout Creek, Mich. Antoinette Hill flies in from Miami, Fla. Their stories attracted print and broadcast media attention in 2010. Today, they are in the dissertation phase of their degree programs.

In appreciation of faculty support, Janet recently placed an orchid in front of each faculty member’s office door. She included a “thank you” note. Now along comes Kimberly, passionately pursuing her PhD, and envisioning a major perk at the end of her journey.

“I’m loving the travel and hoping that with all the frequent flyer miles, I will be able to treat myself to a European vacation when I graduate,” she says. “If not, I’ll settle for Vegas.”